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Hunter Biden testified before Congress earlier this year, vehemently denying corruption and claiming that his father had nothing to do with his business dealings. New documents provided by IRS whistleblowers, however, have called many of those claims into question.
From National Review. Key details from Hunter Biden’s congressional testimony earlier this year are now in doubt thanks to documents provided to congressional investigators by two IRS agents who came forward last year with allegations of misconduct in the first son’s tax case.
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IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler turned over documents to the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday that appear to show that Hunter Biden downplayed the extent of the foreign-influence peddling schemes he participated in while his father was vice president and in the years after his father left office.
Hunter’s Threatening Text Message
In one case, the first son appears to have lied about the circumstances surrounding a threatening text he sent a Chinese business partner. He also appears to have misled lawmakers regarding his knowledge of a holding company used to receive payments from Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings. …
During his appearance before the committee, Hunter was asked about a text message in which he appeared to use his proximity to his father, then-vice president Joe Biden, to compel payment from a Chinese business partner, Raymond Zhao of CEFC, a Chinese energy conglomerate with which Hunter was trying to establish a joint venture.
“I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight,” Biden texted Zhao, according to documents turned over to the committee by Shapley, the IRS whistleblower.
Asked about the message, Hunter insisted under oath that he was not actually sitting with his father when he sent it. He further explained that, because he was intoxicated at the time, he sent the message to the wrong person in his contacts, not the Chinese energy conglomerate executive he meant to message. …
Contrary to Hunter’s testimony, Ziegler provided a sworn affidavit and text messages showing that Hunter did in fact send the message to the correct Zhao in July 2017, and that he continued to send Zhao threatening text messages about their proposed joint venture for months afterwards. …
While he repeatedly denied during his testimony that his father was involved in his business dealings, other newly released text and WeChat messages between Hunter and a different CEFC associate show Hunter repeatedly referring to his father during conversations about potential meetings. …
The new text messages appear to corroborate an extensive collection of evidence and testimony indicating that Joe Biden was at the very least tangentially involved in Hunter’s influence-peddling schemes. …
Hunter Distanced Himself from Burisma Payments
During his February testimony, Hunter also minimized his role in setting up a holding company to receive lucrative payments from Burisma, insisting that he had no role in the company despite documentary evidence that he served as “acting corporate secretary” of the firm and used the Burisma proceeds wired to the company’s account to buy a Porsche.
Emails disclosed by Ziegler indicate Hunter agreed to have Burisma send his $80,000 monthly payments to Rosemont Seneca Bohai. The House Oversight Committee released bank records last year that show Biden used the Bohai account in 2014 and 2015 to receive payments and a wire from Kazakh oligarch Kenes Rakishev, which Hunter used to buy a Porsche.
In April 2014, Hunter’s assistant sent the owner of a car dealership a document referring to Hunter as the acting corporate secretary of the Rosemont Seneca Bohai account in order to secure approval for Hunter to purchase the car. …
The new evidence directly contradicts Hunter Biden’s claim he had no role with Rosemont Seneca Bohai and outsourced the Porsche purchase …
“I own the porsche free and clear,” Hunter Biden told an automotive executive in July 2014, the emails demonstrate. …
Moreover, Hunter Biden denied assisting his clients with attempts to immigrate to the U.S. and obtain visas. The emails shared by Ziegler include communications related to Hunter and his business associates’s attempts to obtain a U.S. visa for Burisma founder Mykola Zlochevsky, who was facing significant legal issues in Ukraine. …
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(Excerpt from National Review. Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons)